Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Digital entertainment |
Founded | February 2012 |
Founder | Chris Hardwick and Peter Levin |
Headquarters | , United States |
Parent | Legendary Digital Networks |
Website | www |
Nerdist Industries, LLC (also simply known as Nerdist) is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast (The Nerdist Podcast) created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a network of podcasts, a premium content YouTube channel, a news division (Nerdist News), and a television version of the original podcast produced by and aired on BBC America.
Nerdist Industries was formed in February 2012 after Hardwick and Peter Levin (GeekChicDaily) merged their separate entertainment projects into Nerdist Industries, after which GeekChicDaily was rebranded Nerdist News. The newly formed company began to produce additional podcasts under the Nerdist Industries banner as well as producing content and webshows for its Nerdist YouTube channel. In July 2012, Nerdist Industries was acquired by Legendary Entertainment. It was announced that Nerdist Industries would operate independently with Hardwick and Levin as its co-presidents. [1]
Peter Levin left Nerdist Industries in 2013 and now heads Lionsgate's Interactive Ventures and Games. Hardwick then took over, and served as chief executive officer until 2015, when he relinquished operational control until the expiration of his contract in 2017, with the original Nerdist podcast and archives remaining under Hardwick's control under the new title ID10T with Chris Hardwick . His presence with the company, including as founder, was clarified and removed from the website on June 15, 2018, after abuse allegations were made against him by a former girlfriend. [2] [3] [4] On August 10, 2018, his name was then returned to Nerdist's website. [5]
Nerdist News (founded February 2012; formerly GeekChicDaily) is the Nerdist branded pop culture newsletter, founded and originally operated by former Nerdist Industries CEO Peter Levin. The cross-platform publisher currently has two newsletter publications, Nerdist News and TOKYOPOP. GeekChicDaily became Nerdist News after it merged with Nerdist to form Nerdist Industries in February 2012. [6] [7] In late 2013 Nerdist News transitioned to a web series on YouTube channel "Nerdist", hosted by previous IGN Daily Fix presenter Jessica Chobot that airs five days a week to bring the latest news in nerdy pop culture.
The Nerdist Podcast, the flagship podcast of Nerdist Industries, is a weekly interview show launched February 8, 2010 "about what it really means to be a nerd" hosted by Web Soup and Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick, who is usually accompanied by Jonah Ray and Matt Mira. [8] The audio podcasts are typically an hour in length and include conversations with notable comedians or entertainers, sometimes at their own home. [9] Guests are varied, though typically relate to either stand-up comedy, nerd culture, or both, and have included CM Punk, Rob Zombie, Stan Lee, Ozzy Osbourne, Jeri Ryan, Drew Carey and several cast and crew of Community , Doctor Who , and Star Trek: The Next Generation .
In late 2017, Hardwick's future with Nerdist Industries and parent company Legendary Entertainment became unclear. Although still technically CEO of Nerdist Industries, he considered his role to have become advisory, and no longer felt connected with the company. As his contract with Legendary approached its end with no discussion about renewing, Hardwick – who retains full rights to the podcast, including its catalog of back episodes – decided to move the podcast. Since he didn't have rights to use the Nerdist name on the podcast without heavy fees, and as part of a new venture, in February 2018 it was renamed to ID10T with Chris Hardwick. [10]
During 2011, Nerdist began releasing various other podcasts. As of January 2016 [update] the full range includes: [11]
The Nerdist Showroom, also known as NerdMelt or the NerdMelt Showroom, was a performance space operated in collaboration with, and located inside, Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, California. The showroom opened in April 2011 and ran through March 2018. It featured the Nerdist logo near the entrance, plush chairs, dark walls, and a far off green room. Performances included live stand-up comedy, storytelling shows, sketch comedy, movie screenings, writer's panels and podcast recordings. It was also the home of the Comedy Central television series The Meltdown with Jonah & Kumail. Past performers include Louis C.K., Jim Gaffigan, Dan Harmon, Kumail Nanjiani, Jonah Ray, and Robin Williams. [17]
The Showroom closed with Meltdown on March 31, 2018, after the building's owners sold it to a developer planning to construct a new residential development along two blocks. [18] [19]
Content featured on Nerdist's YouTube channel. includes: [20] [21] [ promotional source? ]
Kathryn Felicia Day is an American actress, singer, writer, and web series creator. She is the creator and star of the web series The Guild (2007–2013), a show loosely based on her life as a gamer. She also wrote and starred in the Dragon Age web series Dragon Age: Redemption (2011). She is a founder of the online media company Geek & Sundry, best known for hosting the show Critical Role between 2015 and 2019. Day was a member of the board of directors of the International Academy of Web Television from December 2009 until August 2012.
Christopher Ryan Hardwick is an American comedian, actor, television and podcast host, writer, and producer. He hosts Talking Dead, an hourlong aftershow on AMC affiliated with the network's zombie drama series The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, as well as Talking with Chris Hardwick, a show in which Hardwick interviews prominent pop culture figures, and The Wall, a plinko-inspired gameshow on NBC, Hardwick created Nerdist Industries, operator of the Nerdist Podcast Network and home of his podcast The Nerdist Podcast, which later left the network and was renamed to ID10T with Chris Hardwick. His podcast has broadcast 1,000 episodes as of December 2019.
Janet Varney is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. She is known for voicing the character of Korra in the Nickelodeon animated television series The Legend of Korra, co-starring as Sheriff Evie Barret in the television series Stan Against Evil, and a recurring role as Becca Barbara in You're the Worst.
Funny or Die, Inc. is a comedy video website and production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a regular staff of in-house writers, producers and directors, and occasionally from a number of famous contributors including Judd Apatow, James Franco and Norm Macdonald. The associated production company continues to make TV shows including truTV's Billy on the Street, Comedy Central's @midnight and Zach Galifianakis' web series Between Two Ferns.
Jessica Chobot is an American on-camera host and writer. She has hosted the IGN shows IGN Strategize and Weekly Wood, which also runs on Xbox Live; she previously worked as presenter of the IGN Daily Fix. Since 2013, she was the primary host of Nerdist News and Nerdist News Talks Back for Nerdist Industries. In 2014, she launched her own podcast titled Bizarre States. She left Nerdist on August 5, 2019. She starred in a reality TV series called Expedition X.
Michele Morrow is an American television presenter, host, actress, writer, producer and video game personality. She is the co-creator, executive producer and lead actor of the single camera sitcom, Good Game, a YouTube Original with Dan Harmon's Starburns Industries and Game Grumps, and is the voice over artist for Alleria Windrunner in Hearthstone.
Jonah Ray Rodrigues is an American actor, comedian and writer from Los Angeles. He stars as Jonah Heston, one of the primary hosts of Mystery Science Theater 3000. He is a former host of The Nerdist Podcast and was the co-host of Comedy Central's The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail.
ID10T with Chris Hardwick is a weekly podcast "about what it really means to be a nerd" hosted by Chris Hardwick. From its launch in 2010 until 2018, Jonah Ray and Matt Mira were usual co-hosts, after which Hardwick hosted alone. As of January 30, 2023, the most recent episode was published on 22 March 2022; no announcement has been made as to whether more will follow.
Matthew Paul Mira is an American podcast host, stand-up comedian and television writer based in Los Angeles. He was a co-host of The Nerdist Podcast from 2010 to 2018.
Kumail Ali Nanjiani is a Pakistani-American stand-up comedian and actor. He is known for his role as Dinesh in the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley (2014–2019) and for co-writing and starring in the romantic comedy film The Big Sick (2017). For co-writing the latter with his wife, Emily V. Gordon, they were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role in The Twilight Zone executive produced by Jordan Peele in 2019.
GeekChicDaily was a multi-platform publisher of pop culture based newsletters, founded by Peter Levin and Gareb Shamus and operated by CEO Peter Levin.
Nerdist News is a Nerdist-branded pop culture newsletter launched in February 2012. It was founded and operated by Nerdist Industries' CEO, Peter Levin, and its CCO, Chris Hardwick. It was hosted by Jessica Chobot.
Michael Patrick Lawrence is an American comedian and writer from Davie, Florida. He formerly lived in New York City and currently lives in Los Angeles.
Harmontown is a comedy podcast that aired weekly from June 16, 2012 to December 3, 2019. It was hosted by writer Dan Harmon, best known as the creator of the television series Community and the co-creator of Rick and Morty, along with actor Jeff B. Davis, best known for his work on the improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway?Harmontown began as a monthly live comedy show in Los Angeles, California, at the NerdMelt Showroom on May 23, 2011, but the show became weekly after Harmon was fired from Community. Since mid-2012, each episode of Harmontown had been recorded and released as a podcast, first by Feral Audio through 2017, then Starburns Audio starting in 2018.
Chloe Frances Dykstra is an American cosplayer, model and actress. She produced and co-hosted the web series Just Cos for the Nerdist Industries' YouTube channel and is a cast member of the SYFY show Heroes of Cosplay. She is also a freelance game journalist for several websites. In June 2018, Dykstra received media attention following an article she wrote on Medium detailing her alleged abuse from a former partner, subsequently identified as Chris Hardwick.
The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail is an American stand-up comedy television series hosted Jonah Ray and Kumail Nanjiani that aired on Comedy Central. It was filmed in the Nerdist Showroom at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. It is based on a weekly live show that began in 2010. On July 24, 2014, an edited version began airing on Comedy Central consisting of eight episodes.
Probably Science is a weekly comedy and science podcast which first aired on January 21, 2012. The show is co-hosted by Andy Wood, Matt Kirshen, and Jesse Case. Former co-host and founding member Brooks Wheelan left the show in 2013 for personal reasons and has since returned as a guest. In Brooks' absence, Case, previously a guest, was brought on as a co-host.
Emily V. Gordon is an American writer, producer and podcast host. She co-wrote the 2017 romantic comedy film The Big Sick, based on her relationship with her husband and frequent collaborator, comic Kumail Nanjiani. Gordon and Nanjiani won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for The Big Sick; they were also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, among many other nominations.
Hampton Yount is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and actor, known for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
L.A. by Night is an American actual play web series where the cast plays as vampires using the fifth edition Vampire: The Masquerade ruleset. It is set canonically in the World of Darkness series after the events of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines and focuses on Kindred society in Los Angeles. It premiered in September 2018; the show's current storyline concluded with its fifth season in 2021. A sequel series, titled NY by Night, started in July 2022.